Why Is My Dream Taking So Long? ⏳

“I’m not ready to let go of my dream yet, but I’m so frustrated, angry, and sad that it’s not happening… yet.”

This is a particular kind of purgatory that I hear all the time from creatives, entrepreneurs, and ambitious professionals. The dream is still flickering, but the path forward is muddy. You’re not giving up—but you’re not moving forward either.

I call it the no-where land. It’s the career version of being stuck in a holding pattern, orbiting the runway with no idea when or if you’ll be cleared to land.

And the emotions that come with that? They can feel like quicksand: the harder you fight to stay positive and keep going, the deeper you sink.

Here’s the part we often miss: That pain might not just be about the dream itself. It’s about how long it’s taking. You’ve given so much time, effort, heart, maybe years of your life and the timing of the return on that investment is unknown.

You’re not experiencing grief because the dream is gone. You're experiencing grief because the timeline you built your life around has come and gone.

The Rules We Thought Would Keep Us Safe

You don’t need to let go of your dream to feel grief. You need to mourn the timeline that didn’t hold.

And for most of us, that timeline was built on a set of rules that promised if we followed them, success would come.

• If I work hard enough.

• If I work smart enough.

• If I have the right mentors.

• If I’m low-maintenance.

• If I’m bold.

• If I get the fellowship.

• If I’m talented and nice.

• If I don’t give up.

We don’t write these rules down—but we live by them. They help us make sense of the grind. They keep us going when things get hard. And they give us something to hold onto when outcomes feel uncertain.

I’m saying something you don’t already know: when the dream stalls, it’s not just frustrating, it’s disorienting. Because a belief system we trusted to carry us through has turned out to be false.

And that unraveling can leave you raw—especially when you start to realize:

Some things are just not yours to control.

Even when you’ve done everything right. Even when you've held up your end of the bargain.

Sometimes, It’s Not About You

Hard truth: there are forces at play that have nothing to do with your effort or worth. Industries contract. Tastes change. Gatekeepers turn over.

I see this all the time in entertainment. There are fewer opportunities, tighter budgets, and more risk aversion than ever before. And that means brilliant, capable, hardworking people are being met with silence—not because they’ve failed, but because the ecosystem has changed.

It’s easy to internalize that silence. To think: Maybe I missed my shot. Maybe I’m not who I thought I was. But that’s not the truth.

The truth is, you can be ready—and still have to wait. You can do your part—and still need others to do theirs. You can want it deeply—and still not be able to force it into being.

If you’ve been trying to muscle your way through an uncertain timeline, it makes perfect sense that you’re frustrated, angry, sad … and really really tired.

Which is why the next step isn’t to push harder. It’s to pause—and take a different kind of inventory.

What You Can Do: Mourn the Old Map

Mourning isn’t the same as letting go. It’s not about pretending you’re fine or moving on without feeling the weight. It’s about telling the truth about what hasn’t worked—and making space to integrate that truth into the bigger picture of your journey.

When we focus only on the timeline—the missed milestone, the silence, the stalled momentum—it’s like staring at the ants at a picnic and forgetting to look up. We miss the basket full of awesome food, the blanket, the park, the people who came with us.

Grief narrows our view. Mourning widens it again.

It helps you see not just what’s missing, but what’s still available. Not just what’s over, but what still matters.

Here’s a gentle practice to help you widen the lens:

Step 1: Name the beliefs.
Write down the rules, assumptions, or expectations you’ve been carrying. Especially the ones tied to how long this dream “should” have taken.

Step 2: Get honest.
Which of these still serve you? Which are outdated, rigid, or no longer true?

Step 3: Honor and release.
Take the ones that no longer serve you and release them. Mark the moment:

• Burn the list

• Rip it up

• Bury it

• Float it away in a stream

The beliefs served you up until a point. Honor them and make space for new ones that will sustain you with the uncertainty that comes with any moonshot.

Step 4: Begin again with perspective.
On a new page, write new beliefs and affirmations. Here’s an example:

My dream hasn’t left me.

I’m not turning away.

I will tend to it gently, protect it fiercely, and keep moving forward whether it requires a sprint or a walk or dancing feet.

Bottom Line

This isn’t about giving up on your dream. The dream is still alive—that’s not the problem.

The heartbreak comes from the timeline that didn’t hold is. From the belief that doing everything “right” would be enough to make it happen by now.

What you’re feeling makes sense. And you don’t need to let go of your dream—you just need to widen the lens. To see the picnic, not just the ants. To care for your dream differently as you walk a path that might take longer, have a lot of twists and turns, and still be worth every step.

Journal Prompts for Paid Subscribers

Journaling is one of the most powerful ways to gain insight into what’s really going on beneath the surface. It can help you unpack resistance, clarify what still matters to you, and begin to shift the way you relate to your dream.

Here are three prompts for paid Moonshot Mentor subscribers to help you explore what’s rising up emotionally—and what’s ready to be reimagined.